Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It's no secret that I've long advocated for a joint defence committee modelled after the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. It's an important piece of parliamentary oversight and transparency. I think it's also important that parliamentarians deepen their knowledge of defence and strategic issues through such a forum. I'm glad to see this bill, the Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2024. On the surface, it looks good. However, today I want to foreshadow that the coalition will be moving an amendment to this bill to ensure that only members of the government and the opposition are able to serve on the committee. At the moment, in the bill it says that there will be seven government members and six non-government members, and there is nothing to preclude Greens from serving on this committee. We won't compromise on our national interest and our national security, and we think it is contrary to the Australian national interest to potentially allow the Greens onto this committee.

I refer to the Greens platform online, where they say, 'The Greens will cancel defence contracts, and cut defence spending.' Then, as you find your way down their manifesto, you see other things. The Greens plan includes 'Renegotiate the US alliance to secure a new relationship focused on making us a better global citizen' and 'Close all military bases that foreign militaries have set up in this country'. Of course, that would include Pine Gap, a really critical part of our alliance. It would also include the closure of any defence establishments in Darwin that support the current footprint of the Marine Expeditionary Force, which works so closely with the Australian Defence Force. Of course, in the future, HMAS Stirling will become Submarine Rotational Force—West. We'll have up to four nuclear submarines from the US and the UK in 2027.

The Greens are trenchantly opposed to this, and I fear—as do my colleagues behind me—that having the Greens on this committee would be strongly contrary to the national interest.

I also refer to Senator David Pocock's statement on Gaza yesterday. In it he calls for Australia to cut all military ties with Israel. Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East—imperfect, I grant that—and they are a close ally of this country. They also have the right to self-defence, which they have been exercising since 7 October after the brutal rapes and murders conducted by Hamas, which is a listed terrorist organisation in this country. To have someone like Senator Pocock, who's an otherwise nice chap, suggest we should cut military ties with Israel is very, very troubling. It's also a troubling signal that potentially someone like Senator Pocock, with these views, could be serving on this committee.

That's why we'll move this amendment, and, if the amendment fails, I'm also foreshadowing that the coalition sadly won't be supporting this bill, because this is a great opportunity and it's an important piece of infrastructure. I hope, therefore, that the Albanese government will come to an agreement that we should make these amendments and make it so that only seven government and six opposition members serve on this committee.

I'll have more to say in due course, but I wanted to make our position clear to the parliament.

Debate adjourned.

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